Naruto: Kitsune of the North
by Saoni
Summary: Kidnapped and left to die in the cold Naruto befriends a pack of foxes and becomes a bandit. Found by a mysterious stranger he trains in the North for years. Now Naruto is strong and ready to shake the foundation of the Elemental Nations! Naruto x Kurotsuchi
1. Chapter 1

All he could see was black, his hands were bound and there was a piece of cloth in his mouth. The last thing he could remember was being chased into a corner by a hoard of people and beaten to a pulp. The kicks wouldn't stop coming and there was a loud ringing sound in his ear. Suddenly all he could see was red and there was a lot of yelling. From there on out his memory was fuzzy. However he did remember one thing. Dead bodies, hundreds of them.

XxX

"End of the line kid"

His eyes were blinded by the sunlight as the bag that was over his head was pulled off. He looked around to see he was in the middle of a snowy forest. He looked around and saw some mountains in the distance but other than that it was just more snow and forest. He looked up at the man who took the bag off and forced himself to speak, "Where am I?"

The man let out a sigh and took off his hat, stroking his beard he said "Hell if I know kiddo, I was told to take you as far out as I could. I'm not supposed to be talking to you but Im kinda of curious. I was paid a hefty amount of cash to take you, a little kid, out here to let you die. What is it that you dun did?"

"I...I don't know, it's all a blur" the kid said, he still looked like he hadn't grasped the situation.

"Hmph, figures. Well i'll be heading out now. The names Takeshi, there's a village at the base of the mountain a couple miles north. If you can make it there tell the Frozen Lamb's Inn keeper I sent you, she'll feed you for a night if you're lucky"

Takeshi then turned around and started walking towards his carriage and hopped in. "Before I leave kiddo what is your name?"

The kid looked up with the same look in his eyes, Takeshi couldn't help but feel bad for the kid. "Its Naruto"

And with that Takeshi rode off.

Naruto watched as the carriage rode of into the distance until it was nothing but a dot on the horizon. The wind picked up and a light snow started to fall. Naruto curled into a ball and did the only thing he could think to do at that moment, Cry.

XxX

Naruto opened his eyes. His whole body was numb and he was covered in snow. He had dragged himself into a small cave and fallen asleep. He looked around, he was starving. The cave was small and there was nothing in it but a old pile of logs. Looked like someone had camped in there prior to Naruto. Naruto crawled over to the logs and rearranged them into what he could remember from campfires he had seen. With a basic fire starting jutsu the logs lit up. The fire felt so good Naruto eyes fell shut. He drifted off into sleep once again.

XxX

Naruto grumbled and opened his eyes again. The fire had gone out recently since there were some lingering embers on the burnt logs. He felt something wet on his back, he rolled over and opened his eyes once more.

"YAHHHHHHHHHH!"

Right in front of him was a bright red fox smelling him. Naruto stood up and ran to the back of the cave. The fox didn't react, it was just staring at him with inquisitive eyes. For some reason Naruto didn't feel in any danger and he slowed down his heavy breathing from being scared. Naruto slid his back down the cave wall to sit down. The fox walked over to him and curled into a ball on his lap. Naruto put his hand on the fox and started to stroke it, the two of them remained like that for a while.

The silence between the two of them was broken by a loud gurgling of Naruto's stomach. The fox uncurled and looked Naruto in the eyes, after a second it stood up and ran out of the cave.

"Wait Mr. Fox come back!" Naruto yelled with his hand stretched out towards the entrance to the cave. Naruto looked down at the ground, tears were building up in his eyes.

A half hour later Naruto was in the same position, the hunger was finally getting to him. He felt like he was going to pass out.

The sound of tiny feet running then filled the cave. Naruto looked up to see where the sound was coming and he saw three foxes, each with a dead rabbit dangling from their mouths. The one in the middle was the fox that comforted Naruto earlier. One by one they placed down the rabbits in front of Naruto and looked at him with this cute look in their eyes.

Naruto had never felt this kind of hunger before and he needed to get rid of it. Screw what they were taught in school about eating raw meat, Naruto was hungry, and in front of him was some meat.

Naruto picked up one of the rabbits and dug his sharp canine teeth into what looked like the meatiest part, blood poured out onto his chest and Naruto forced what he could get out down his throat. He was expecting to gag, to have to spit it out immediately but what happened was that he enjoyed it! It didn't taste gross, it tasted great. Naruto got to work and started eating what else he could when one of the foxes growled at him, Naruto looked up from his food and stared at the fox and asked, "Hmmm? Do you want some?".

The fox just looked at him, one of the other foxes came forward and took one of the rabbits. It bit down exactly where Naruto did, it then bit several other places and soon the rabbit was all but gone. However not all of it was. Naruto was confused as to what the fox was trying to show him until he examined the rabbit further. Certain parts did not get eaten. He looked back down at the rabbit he was eating and noticed the spot he was about to eat was one the fox didn't eat. He turned the rabbit around and started eating the parts he could.

Naruto reached out his hand and started to pet the foxes with a smile on his face. Yeah, he thought, I could get used to this.

XxX

Takeshi rode through the forest, today he was going to the village at the base of the mountain to deliver some goods. He was also planning on stopping at the Frozen Lamb for a quick drink and to see if that Naruto kid made it there. With a grim look on he thought about the chances of that kid actually making it. Takeshi slapped himself out of it and rode on down the road.

XxX

"He's here! He's here!"

Takeshi came to the village often for various reasons, the small village was so isolated from the outside world. It was an oasis of innocence and happiness that Takeshi rarely ever saw. Takeshi smiled at the kids chasing his wagon, they loved him for the stories he told whenever he came. The children knew he couldn't tell them stories till later so he continued to ride to the inn.

The Frozen Lamb, it was the only inn in the village so Takeshi had crashed there a couple of times. In those times he had become quite familiar with the woman in charge of the place. She was the biggest reason this village was his favorite, not like he would ever tell her that.

As he rode up to the inn he could see a woman sitting on the porch, he smiled as he knew it was her. The sun was setting and the light shined directly on her beautiful silver hair. He arrived at the inn and hopped of his wagon. As he tied up his horse the woman on the porch approached him.

"Wasn't expecting you here for at least a couple of days, Takeshi" the woman said with a smile.

Scratching the back of his head Takeshi laughed, "I got off my last job early so I decided to come early, gives me some time to stay here. Are you excited to see me, Gina?"

"Don't get ahead of yourself, why don't you come inside for a drink, on the house."

XxX

After getting their drinks they both sat down at the booth behind the bar. Hours past and they were both still chatting, it had been months since they last saw each other. After all that time they were only on there second glass, deciding to try and talk to each other sober.

"So Gina, has anybody come to your inn recently saying I sent them?" Takeshi stated in an oddly serious tone for the conversation.

"No, why?" Gina saw the effect of her statement on his face immediately. "Was it anybody important?"

"Nah, it's nothing, forget it."

As they had been speaking the bar slowly started to fill up, the men of the village all liked Takeshi so they when they heard he was in town they figured he be at the bar. One villager saw Takeshi and shouted to the other guys. Soon Takeshi had no other choice but to go out and converse.

"So Takeshi" some villager said after a burp, his breath reeking of alcohol. "Did you happen to see the monster on your way up to the village?"

"The monster?"

"Yeah" the dude on the other side of Takeshi said, "Some _thing_ has been attacking people on the side path to the village, it's now almost never taken"

"Hmph, bunch of boloney. I always ride that path and never have I had a problem"

Some other villager in the back of the bar spoke up "Boloney?! I was attacked by the thing!"

"Oh really? What did it look like" Takeshi retorted. "What did it even do?"

All the men in the bar had already heard the story, some of them even encountered the thing themselves. The men were all united in agreement the monster did exist.

"I was riding my wagon up the the hill when outta nowhere I here growl. You see it was in the middle of the night so I was pretty spooked, we dun really have that many wolves near the village. I just kept on riding when I looked ahead there was a man standing in the middle of the road, cloaked in all black with a large hood over his head. I stopped the cart and out of nowhere red eyes surrounded me, a dozen or so foxes jumped onto me and the man was suddenly in front of me, he was really short and his hood covered most of his face. I could see one thing, a giant grin on the face of him. He pulled out a staff on his back and hit me on the back of the head with the side. Next thing I remember I was near the village and my cart was missing a little of what I carried"

"Sounds like some bandit with a little ninja training, nothing special." Takeshi said. "I guess you lot don't have any experience with ninja, they can move really quick. You say he's still there? On my way out of town i'll go looking for him. Ok?"

And that was that, the drunk men continued on to chat about their lives.

XxX

Takeshi looked down the long side road away from the village. "It time to go see what this fuss of a monster is all about" Takeshi sighed, he hadn't fought anybody in a while, and he had hoped it would stay that way.

With another sigh Takeshi headed down the road. He still was planning on staying in the village a little while longer so he was just going to walk.

It was silent. The air was cold and the sun was shining, Takeshi couldn't help but smile. This is why he had moved so far north, away from the action, away from ninja. Takeshi suddenly stopped moving and closed his eyes, his hands formed into a sign to channel his chakra. He was scanning the area for any chakra signatures. His eyes suddenly bursted open as he found a large chakra source, and by large he meant large. With one hand on his blade Takeshi started to dash towards the location. Takeshi got more and more nervous as he approached the large chakra source. He wanted to back down but he couldn't, something this big could possibly hurt the villagers, and he would not let that happen.

Takeshi looked ahead of him, a small hill with a hole in the side was in front of him. The chakra was coming from inside of there. He slowed down his pace and hid his presence. He walked over to the cave and looked inside. It was well lit, torches on the wall and a single candle. On the ground were a dozen or so foxes doing, well, whatever foxes do. They all looked up at the intruder in unison, some of them started to growl. It was truly an intimidating sight.

The foxes suddenly ran and jumped at the man, Takeshi was no wet behind the ears fighter, a couple of foxes were nothing. He reached for his blade but decided against, what was the need to kill them? He looked above at the ceiling judging if there was enough room. Decided it was he leaped of the foxes to get to the back of the cave, he needed to find the chakra source. On the ground again he looked behind him, a fox was biting his ankles. He turned around to shake it off when a hand came out of nowhere and grabbed his neck from the behind.

"Who are you and what are you doing here?!"

A young boy, Takeshi thought, a young boy is the source of all that chakra. He needed to protect the village, he had already indirectly killed Naruto he was prepared to do it again. He took his free hand and grabbed the wrist of his attacker. With all the force he had he grabbed the arm and threw the person in front of him on the ground. All the foxes from before went into a fury and charged at Takeshi. Takeshi forced out as much killing intent as he could and stared down all of the foxes. They merely whimpered at the sight of the man.

"Kid I don't know who you are but what ar….." Takeshi was stopped mid sentence. There on the ground under his foot was, of all people, Naruto himself.

XxX

So that's that! I have big plans for this story, however long it may take me to write it. Sorry for anyone who read my other one but the good news I do indeed plan on updating it. I hope you enjoyed this story, it kind of just came to me so I don't know how original it is. Tell me if there is anything you're hoping for this story because i'm very open to suggestions!

~Saoni


	2. Chapter 2

Naruto groaned as he woke up, the last thing he remembered was getting completely overpowered by the intruder. He sat up and looked around at his surroundings, the walls were wood and on the wall hung a bear's fur. In front of the bed he was in was a fireplace surrounded by stone. Next to the fireplace was the intruder who defeated him, the man had long brown hair tied up into a ponytail and a little bit of a beard. He wore a collared white shirt with a dark red vest on top of it. On the side of the chair was a brown jacket that looked brand new. Naruto looked down at himself and noticed he was wearing something similar. The same white shirt, albeit a few sizes smaller, and a brown vest. The man was reading a book and had not yet noticed Naruto. For some reason Naruto thought he would be able to sneak out. As he removed the cover and shifted his feet off the bed a loud noise came from the direction of the man. He had slammed his book closed and was staring right at Naruto.

"Heh quite the twist ending that was, I would recommend it assuming you know how to read."

Naruto looked at the man, his voice was, well, friendly and similar. He couldn't sense any malice in his words.

"I don't know if you remember me but I remember you, Naruto. My name is Takeshi if can't recall it. Now boya why don't you tell me what you were thinking in robbing merchants and villagers coming into the village." The man continued to stare at Naruto waiting for a response.

All Naruto did was stare at the floor. To Takeshi it seemed as if he was debating within himself on whether to tell him something.

The silence was broken by the opening of a door, standing in the doorframe was Gina. Takeshi unfolded his legs, stood up from his chair, and walked over to her. They spoke in whispers so Naruto could not hear them.

With a nervous glance towards Naruto, Gina started off the conversation, "Well, how is he?"

Takeshi let out a sigh, " Fine I suppose, he just woke up and isn't saying anything."

"He's probably just scared, let's leave him alone for now, maybe he'll talk later."

XxX

Naruto was still in the same position on the edge of the bed.

'Im telling you brat you have to find a way out of here! These people, these people! They do not care for you! They only want your power! They are deceiving you with their kind words! Go over to the window there and break it, jump out and run! Trust me, for I am the only one you can trust in this world!'

This voice was just in his head, Naruto didn't know why it had suddenly decided to intervene but It had guided him in surviving and in training, that was more than anyone had done for him in his whole life! The voice told him to call him 'Kurou'.

'But Kurou I've barely even spoken to them, there is no way you could say they are good or bad people. From what they have done they have only been nice to me!'

The voice, 'Kurou', thought for a second before responding. 'The man's name was Takeshi, no? Do you not remember who it was who left you to die? To freeze to death in the middle of nowhere? It was him!'

Naruto took no time to formulate his response, he stood up and told Kurou, 'Yeah it was him! I need answers, screw escaping i'm going out to find him right now!'

Ignoring the warning from in his head Naruto stood up and walked out of the room. It was a long hall with several doors all with a plate labeled with a number. 'It could be any of these doors! How am I ever going to find him?'

'You're not, now leave'

'Shut up Kurou'

Naruto looked up and down the hallway again until he suddenly closed his eyes. He focused in on the smell he could remember from earlier. When he reopened his eyes he could almost imagine a trail of the smell in the air. He sniffed it one more time to confirm it was the smell he remembered, and surprisingly, it was. Naruto looked at the trail and walked through it. It down a set of stairs, through a couple doors, and into a large room. At the very front of the room was a set of double doors, light coming in through the sides. His body was attracted to the doors, it was screaming at him to go through them. With a shake of his head Naruto regained his focus, he continued looking around the room. On the far side was another set of doors, the smell trail led straight into them.

Naruto, by nature, was very stubborn and he had made his decision already, he walked over to the doors leading to where Takeshi smell led. He grabbed the door handles and opened them up slowly. Inside was another large room. To the right was a bar with a line of stools along the side. The rest of the room was just a bunch of scattered wooden tables with chairs surrounding them. The doors were quite squeaky so everyone was alerted immediately to Naruto's presence.

Three people, Naruto observed. Two of them were sitting at a table eating breakfast, one was Takeshi, the other being the silver haired women from early. "Gina", Naruto think he heard Takeshi say. The last one was behind the bar cleaning a cup, he was clearly very old. The man had grey hair sprouting out from his head and an eyepatch covering one eye and three scars running down the same side of his face. He wore a traditional bartenders outfit.

After taking a bite from a sausage on his plate Takeshi smiled and gestured towards the empty seat next to him. "How nice of you to join us Naruto, have a seat."

Naruto walked over to sit down, while doing so he noticed the bartender glaring at him with his one eye. If there was one thing Kurou taught him it was to never waver to intimidation. Naruto pulled the chair out and sat down.

"Are you hungry?" Takeshi asked. With a quick nod from Naruto he continued " Ryuunosuke fix up another omelette would ya?" The bartender scoffed and walked into the back. A few minutes later he came back out with a omelette, still steaming. Takeshi stood up and grabbed the omelette from the bartender and placed it in front of Naruto.

Naruto just stared at the omelette, after a few second he started to poke the omelette with his finger. Naruto then brought his head down and started to sniff it for some reason. Deciding it was safe Naruto picked up the omelette and started to eat it. Gina was disgusted by what she was seeing, Takeshi just smiled, Ryuunosuke was furious.

"Have you already lost your manners after living in the forest for five months?" asked Takeshi not knowing Naruto never really had that great of manners to begin with.

Naruto didn't even acknowledge what had been said until after he finished. "Oh my bad" he said scratching the back of his head, "Ya know living with foxes and all."

Now that Naruto was fed Takeshi decided it was time to start the questions and to plan for what's next.

"Naruto, why did you live with the foxes rather than coming to the village like I said?"

"The foxes helped me survive, I felt at home with them. I thought the villagers would hurt me, throw me aside like before."

The same question was going through the mind of the three adults in the room, "Who is this kid?"

Takeshi continued with the interrogation, "Do you remember who you are? Do you know how old you are or where you are from?"

Naruto sat still for a second, debating whether or not he should tell these people. Kurou screamed no but Naruto couldn't help his trusting personality.

"My name is Naruto Uzumaki, I was 12 but i'm pretty sure my birthday has passed so I think im 13. I'm from Konoha but after being beat up I blacked out and woke up here with Takeshi."

"Konoha eh? That's quite... troublesome." Takeshi said, he sounded quite shocked. "Do you know anything about the second attack from the Kyuubi?"

If Naruto was drinking something he would have spat it out in surprise. Naruto jumped out of his seat and started to yell, "Kyuubi?! Second attack! When was this?! Was anybody hurt? Is Konoha ok?!"

"Calm down kiddo the attack was much less severe than the one from 13 years ago, Konoha is fine but after the attack they have secured their borders, the third hokage was killed and a man they call Danzo replaced him. The rumours say he is very strict but the citizens feel safe."

"So Jiji is dead…" Naruto looked like he was about to cry, but he maintained his composure. "What else do the rumours say!"

"It's kinda odd, they say the Kyuubi was sealed within a child but the kid lost control and it got released. The third hokage then, like the fourth before him, sacrificed his life and supposedly took the Kyuubi down with 'em"

Deciding to speak the old bartender Ryuunosuke said, "Pfft as if, a tailed beast could not be killed. It would just reform, it is just merely chakra."

"And how do think that would take Ryuu?" Takeshi asked, he knew a little of the tailed beasts but Ryuunosuke wouldn't tell him anymore since it was "not necessary for the time". It was rare that Ryuunosuke spoke about what he knew, and Takeshi wanted to milk it since it happened so rare.

"I have no idea how long it would take, but however you need not worry. The Kyuubi won't be reforming."

This time it was Gina who spoke, "How could you possibly know that? I know you're smart and all but it is pretty accepted that the third hokage did destroy the Kyuubi. Are you saying he did such a good job that the kyuubi was just destroyed?"

"No...I'm saying that because the Kyuubi was never destroyed"

"But how could you know that!"

"It's because he's here, in this very room with us!"

The room went silent. Not a sound could be heard. The three adults were all staring at Naruto and Naruto was stunned. Naruto may not have been the sharpest tool in the shed but it didn't take an idiot to figure who the kyuubi was in the room.

Naruto tried to speak but his voice cracked. Nobody was saying anything.

'Kurou do you know anything about this? Am I really, am I really the Kyuubi?'

Kurou was silent, he didn't know what to say. He could lie and say that Naruto was Kyuubi reincarnate but if that Ryuunosuke knew Kyuubi was sealed in Naruto he would tell Naruto otherwise immediately.

'No you dumbass, i'm the Kyuubi! I've been sealed within you ever since your birth! Hate me! Fear me!'

Kyuubi then cut off the connection between the two.

'But Kurou, I don't think I could hate you. You're my friend'

Naruto was broken out of his thought by Takeshi's voice, "So you are the Kyuubi? Explains why I was hired to drop you off out here"

Naruto just looked down at the ground.

Ryuunosuke interrupted to correct what Takeshi said, "Takeshi my boy, he is not the kyuubi you fool. Merely his captor. Tailed beasts have sealed into people for as long as I can remember, it is not something widely discussed today though."

"It is interesting" Ryuunosuke continued, "I've never heard of a jinchuriki ever surviving a full takeover at such a young age, your will is strong boy, i'm interested to you see what you will do in the future."

Naruto looked up, tears were in his eyes. "So..so you don't hate me?"

"I can not speak for Gina and Takeshi but no, I do not hate you."

"I don't hate you either" Takeshi chirped in.

"I don't hate you as I have not come to know you" Gina added.

This was just too much for Naruto, he broke out into tears and started to cry.

XxX

So yeah, that's chapter 2. I felt like it was a necessary chapter but not a very interesting one. That aside I have a pretty solid idea now for where I want to take this story so I'll probably pump out another chapter very soon since I like where it is going. So that's that.

~Saoni


End file.
